How to use AI to Improve the High School Enrollment Journey

June 21, 2023 / blog / Comments (0)

How to Use AI To Improve the High School Enrollment Journey

As educators and administrators, it’s time to accept the fact that AI is here to stay.

Concerns regarding the impact that chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard will have on student learning are understandable, but the potential for AI to increase school enrollment should not be overlooked. So, while it’s fair to be wary, it’s time we let our guard down a little with the goal of streamlining and enhancing internal processes.

To get you excited about the possibilities, the School Agency will be exploring a few of the many use cases for AI as an enrollment and admissions-boosting tool.

Let’s get started!

Parents that interact with school marketing typically move through a seven-stage journey:

1. Awareness: Parents become aware of your school, either through advertising or word-of-mouth.
2. Interest: Parents research the school and its programs to decide if it’s a good fit for their child.
3. Application: Parents submit an application and documents required for admission.
4. Enrollment: Parents complete the enrollment process, including signing up for classes and paying fees.
5. Retention: Parents stay engaged with the school and maintain their engagement over time.
6. Alumni: Parents remain involved in the school after their child graduates.
7. Evangelist: Parents participate in the school’s marketing efforts by providing positive reviews and referrals.

Getting parents (and students) to reach the evangelist stage is crucial—personal connections and word-of-mouth recommendations are likely the largest source of new students at your school.

how to use ai to improve the high school enrollment journey

But how do you get them there? Enter AI.

By leveraging powerful algorithms, tools, and applications, AI can help school administrators automate and streamline the enrollment process.

How AI Can Help Streamline High School Enrollment

1. Awareness

The awareness stage is all about connecting with potential students. AI can help by targeting the right audience and personalizing marketing messages.

To do this, you’ll need an AI-powered chatbot tool (e.g., Drift). Chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to customer inquiries in real-time. Plus, you can train them to recommend relevant content, like school brochures and course schedules.

Set up a chatbot with a series of triggers on key pages of your website—tuition, admissions, and FAQs. When parents interact with these chatbots, store the information and use it to assign lead scores based on how interested they are.

2. Interest

Once parents show interest in your school, AI can help you nurture them through the next stages.

For example, using AI-powered predictive analytics can help you determine which students are most likely to apply and enroll. In turn, this allows you to focus your marketing efforts on those who are more likely to become engaged members of the school community.

You can also use AI to create messaging that is tailored to each lead, based on past behaviors and interests. 

how to use ai to improve the high school enrollment journey

ChatGPT is more than capable of creating basic emails and webpages, as well as tailored conversations that will help to move prospects through the sales pipeline. However, you may want to choose a purpose-built tool like Copy.ai.

3. Application

The application stage is all about collecting the necessary information and documents from potential students. AI can help you simplify and automate this process.

For starters, you can transform the application process into a modern, conversational experience powered by chatbots. AI-enabled document automation can also help you quickly and easily assess applicant information and documents—saving time for both your team and potential students.

On top of that, you can use NLP to quickly summarize applications and pull out key pieces of information. This makes it much easier to quickly review and assess numerous applications.

4. Enrollment

Once a student is accepted into your school, it’s time to make them an official member of the community.

AI can help automate this process as well. Using natural language processing (NLP), you can quickly summarize and analyze enrollment documents, such as contracts and waivers. This helps streamline the process and makes sure everything is taken care of before the student starts classes.

5. Retention

AI can also be used to help you retain students and ensure that they stay engaged with your school.

For starters, you can use AI-powered analytics to identify patterns that might indicate students are at risk of dropping out based on:

• attendance
• grades
• declining interest

With this insight, you can take the necessary steps to intervene and keep them engaged. In addition, you can use chatbots to provide students with personalized support and advice.

And finally, AI-powered recommendations can help you suggest relevant courses and activities that might make the student stay longer. Ultimately, this helps to improve overall student retention.

6. Alumni

The main use case here is content and asset creation. You can use AI-powered writing assistants to quickly write articles or create assets for outreach purposes. You can also use social listening and sentiment analysis tools to find out what your alumni are saying about the school and use that information to better serve them.

AI can also be used for alumni engagement. You can set up chatbots to automate conversations and better understand alumni needs. Using AI-powered analytics, you can also track alumni data and gain insights to inform your strategies.

7. Evangelist

AI can be used to help you make your evangelist’s work more effective. For example, AI-powered analytics can help you uncover insights about your evangelists and their audiences. 

This can help you segment the audience better, target specific campaigns to them, and personalize messages for maximum impact.

It’s Time for Action

The potential for AI to help schools is limitless. But it’s important to remember that you can’t just invest in technology and expect results—you need to have a plan in place.

At the School Agency, we help private schools around the UAE and beyond craft winning marketing strategies that drive enrollment and boost awareness. And we use a mix of human-driven and AI-powered solutions to get the job done.

If you’re ready to take your school marketing to the next level, contact us for a consultation call.

Tags:blog articles on private school marketing admissions re-marketing , AI in Eduction admissions marketing , enrollment marketing , Marketing Strategies for Schools , Strategic Enrollment Management